ANNALS 
or 
PHILOSOPHY. 
JULY, 1815. 
—————— 
ArtTIicLe I. 
Some Account of the late Smithson Tennant, Esq. 
WE announced in a former number the death of Smithson Ten- 
nant, Esq. F.R.S. Professor of Chemistry in the University of 
Cambridge: we shall now proceed to lay before our readers some 
account of his life, studies, and character. 
‘Mr. Tennant may be considered as one of those “ who, without 
much labour, have attained a high reputation, and are mentioned 
with reverence rather for the possession than the exertion of un- 
common abilities.” * Of such a man it is perhaps impossible to 
give an account, which will satisfy the judgment of his friends, 
without being suspected by others of cousiderable exaggeration, 
Mr. Tennant is only known to the public by his papers in the 
Philosophical Transactions, which, however admirable as speci- 
mens of his scientific powers, afford a very inadequate idea of the 
real extent of his genius and knowledge. These were in’ many 
respects so extraordinary, that it would be taking a most imperfect 
view of his intellectual character to consider him only as a man of 
science. Some attempt therefore ought to be made to do justice to 
his other distinguished attainments ; although a certain cites of 
caution is obviously requisite in speaking of those qualities, how- 
ever remarkable, which cannot be duly appreciated except by his 
particular friends. 
Smithson Tennant was the only child of the Rev. Calvert Ten- 
nant, younger son of a respectable family in Wensley-dale, near 
Richmond, in Yorkshire, and Vicar of Selby in that county, where 
* Dr. Jebnson’s Life of Edmund Smith, 
Vor, VI, N° I. A 
